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Dessert

Chocolate Cake

A chocolate cake with a sweet frosting made from sugar syrup and grated chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Add the sweet milk and eggs, mixing well.

  4. Sift together the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the mixture.

  5. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Bake the layers

  1. Divide the batter into 4 thick layers and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

Make and spread the frosting

  1. For the frosting, boil 1 cup of sugar with enough water to dissolve it until thick.

  2. While hot, pour the syrup over the beaten egg white, stirring briskly until thick.

  3. Add the grated chocolate and spread the frosting over the cake immediately.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the cake a light, tender crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and, creamed with butter, helps hold air for lift.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the oven, helping the layers rise and turn light.
German sweet chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and body to the frosting.

The step that matters

Pouring the hot syrup and spreading the frosting. Hot sugar syrup poured over beaten egg white cooks and thickens it into a glossy, fluffy icing as it cools. The frosting sets quickly, so it must be stirred until thick and spread on the cake immediately, before it stiffens and cannot be spread.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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